


Dragon Parenting for Vikings

by Seascribe



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-24
Updated: 2012-01-24
Packaged: 2017-10-30 02:00:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/326518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seascribe/pseuds/Seascribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The next Snoggletog, Toothless comes home with a flock of baby Night Furies.  Hiccup's life is about to get even more interesting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragon Parenting for Vikings

**Author's Note:**

> For Rahmi.

The next Snoggletog, Hiccup wakes up to something making a very insistent _peep peep peep_ noise right next to his ear.

"Mrrghngh," Hiccup says and rolls over to bury his face in the pillow. Something in the depths of the blankets makes an indignant noise. Toothless, overhead, huffs against Hiccup's hair in a friendly but vaguely menacing sort of way.

"All right, I'm up, I'm up," Hiccup grumbles, throwing off the blankets. This sets off a frantic burst of peeping from the foot of the bed. "What the--" Hiccup pulls the blankets aside to find three sleek, green-eyed little dragons, all of them giving him the stink-eye.

"Baby Night Furies?" he breathes. Toothless makes a gurgling noise of agreement. "Hi, guys," Hiccup says, stretching out a careful hand. The littlest one narrows its eyes at him and latches gummily onto the web of his thumb, thrashing its tail ferociously.

"Ouch! Good thing these little guys really _are_ toothless," Hiccup says, snatching his hand away. The little dragon makes a sulky sound when Toothless cuffs it over the head, and spits out a tiny ball of flame in relation. It leaves a scorchmark smouldering on the blanket.

"Huh," says Hiccup. "Life is about to get even more interesting."

The little Night Furies have ridiculously oversized paws and fragile wings no larger than Hiccup's spread hands. At first, they keep trying to chew on him whenever he pets them, but eventually--before their needley baby teeth come in, thank Odin--they decide that they like him well enough and demonstrate their affection by swarming up his body and trying to set his hair on fire. They are, in general, more prone to accidentally flaming and sudden fits of sulking than the other hatchlings. Hiccup hopes they grow out of it soon. His nerves can't take much more of this.

*  
"Guys! Swarta! Snarlup! Knut! Where are you hiding? It's time for supper!" Hiccup has checked under the bed, in the cupboard, behind the woodpile, and in the barn. There's no trace of the three little dragons. "Toothless, have you seen them?"

His dragon looks up at the roof with a burble of amusement. Three twitching little tails are just visible over the spine of the roof. One of them--Swarta--turns and peers down at him, her ears perked mischievously.

"Get down from there right now!" Hiccup has no idea how they got up there in the first place. They're still too small to fly very well, and even though he knows, logically, that they aren't likely to slip--they are dragons, after all--it still makes his heart squeeze up all tight in his chest when they slide down the slope of the roof, coming to a stop clinging to the gutter and positively _grinning_ down at him. "Toothless, get them down!"

Toothless just looks at him, and Hiccup swears he's grinning too, just a little better at hiding it. "Toothless!" The dragon heaves a sigh and slouches over to nose the little dragons safely back to the ground.

*  
One morning Hiccup almost trips over the carcass of a badger left lovingly at the foot of his bed. Knut hangs down from the rafters, trilling with self-importance while Snarlup and Swarta preen. Toothless bumps them proudly with his nose.

"How did you--Guys! You can't just go out in the forest alone and--and kill things! He's three times the size of you!" The three hatchlings look at one another and then down at the badger, considering, and then shake their heads at him. "Well, maybe not all together. But that's not the point! Bad dragons! Very bad!"

He catches Toothless giving them a covert look that Hiccup is sure is the dragon equivalent of a thumbs up. "Stop encouraging them, Toothless!"

He's going to be lucky if his hair hasn't all turned grey by the time they can fly on their own.

*  
This year's hatching of Gronkles, Nadders, and Zipplebacks have all already taken to the skies, fishing and cavorting with the older hatchlings and their riders. But the little Night Furies still seem content to flutter around and never go much higher than the roof, although they've gotten pretty zippy at covering ground. Hiccup knows, because they are always trying to outrun him to go play unsupervised in the forest.

"It's okay, guys," Hiccup says, worried that they might be suffering some kind of emotional trauma over being late bloomers. "A couple of the Nightmares aren't flying yet either. It's no big deal." He tries not to get sappy, but sometimes he can't help but reassure them that he will love them even if they never learn how to fly. Once, Toothless overhears him, and makes the roaring noise that means he's laughing so hard that if he were a Viking, there would be tears in his eyes. Hiccup ignores him. _Somebody_ has to look out for their self esteem!

Of course, they do eventually learn how to fly. And Hiccup is very proud of them. He just wishes that maybe they would be more careful.

"Knut! You should probably save the divebombing for when you're a little older!" Or never, never would be good too, Hiccup thinks, watching the littlest Night Fury plummet like a hawk, catching himself at the very last possible second. His sisters think that's the best trick _ever_ , and pretty soon the three of them are making a contest of it, seeing who can fall the fastest and come the closest to splattering themselves all over the ground. Hiccup sighs.

Toothless looms over him, flapping his wings so that the backdraft makes Hiccup stagger. "Hey bud, you wanna go flying with them?" Toothless chirrups in agreement. "I reckon we could teach them a thing or two. You know, newer and better ways for them to risk their lives." The dragon butts at his chest, making a mocking noise. "I know, I know, I'm an old woman." He clambers onto his dragon's back. "I guess if they're going to do it anyway, they might as well learn from the best, right buddy?"

Toothless throws his head up proudly, and leaps into the sky. Hiccup's stomach lurches, familiar but never any less exhilarating, and the three little Night Furies streak after them, darting in and out of the sweep of Toothless' wings and shooting miniature fireballs at each other. Hiccup thinks about scolding them, but changes his mind and just holds on for the ride.


End file.
